The best books of the week

The debate over productive vs reproductive women; the case for a more feminist Russia; how Germany settled its postwar debt; lives after the fall of the Berlin Wall; the struggle to save tigers; arresting insights into evolution and intelligence; novels by Olivia Laing and Karl Ove Knausgaard; Patti Smith’s memoir of her life and loves; Adam LeBor’s pick of the best thrillers — plus an interview with Baillie Gifford winner Helen Garner